Submit Your Story to Short Fiction Break

We love to help writers find the audience their work deserves, and we welcome submissions of short stories.

We publish short fiction of any genre. If you are wondering whether your piece would be a good fit for Short Fiction Break, we encourage you to read past stories before submitting.

Submissions to Short Fiction Break are currently closed. They will reopen in 2018.

Why Submit to Short Fiction Break

We know you love your stories, and you’ve worked hard to polish them until they shine. You’ve written, rewritten, and rewritten again. You’ve carefully paced the plot, agonized over the perfect word, and crafted just the right twist at the end.

But all that hard work alone won’t make you a successful writer. It must be followed by one essential step:

You must publish.

Writers don’t write in a vacuum. We write for others: writing is meant to be shared. Great writers make it a habit to publish their writing.

When you breathe in, you must breathe out. If you write, you must publish. These two go together.

If you don’t write, you will suffocate. If you don’t publish, you will lose your drive.

Write. Then, publish.

Of course, if you’ve made it this far, you probably already know publishing is essential. You may be asking the one question we’ve heard from writers more than any other:

I want to publish my story. But how can I get readers to read it?

When you’ve worked so hard to tell a great story, you want to share it far and wide with readers who will be captivated and engaged.

But without an established audience, you’ll never reach the readers you want to find your story. We know how disheartening it is when you share your writing online . . . but no one notices.

After all your effort, no one reads.

At Short Fiction Break, we’ve done the hard work for you. We’ve already gathered an engaged audience actively looking for new stories to read. When you publish your story with us, we’ll share it with our extensive readership, giving it the exposure it deserves.

When your story is published on Short Fiction Break, our audience will become your audience. You’ll know: You’ve written a great story. You’ve published it.

And readers are reading.

And with that confidence and encouragement, you’ll feel ready to focus on what’s really important: writing your next story.

More Than a Literary Magazine: Included Training When You Submit

You want to share your writing, and when you are published through Short Fiction Break, we’ll spread your story to our large, engaged readership.

But we understand that pressing “submit” is hard. In the back of your mind, you might wonder,

What if my story gets rejected?

You’ve worked hard to make your story the best you can make it. Your writing is precious to you. And let’s face it—rejection hurts.

We know. We don’t like rejecting stories, either.

At Short Fiction Break, we are passionately committed to helping you grow in your craft and succeed as a writer. That’s why we do more than simply say “yes” or “no.”

We invest in writers, helping you craft a story that you and we will be proud to publish.

When you submit your story, you’ll get thirty days of access to Becoming Writer, our partner writing community. In this online forum full of honest and supportive writers, you’ll get expert feedback that will help you take your story to the next level.

On your own, you’ve made your story the best YOU can make it. In Becoming Writer, you’ll get the feedback you need to make it even better.

This included training will substantially increase your chances of your story being accepted for publication. And even if it is not published with Short Fiction Break, you will have a polished piece that you can continue to submit elsewhere.

Submissions to Short Fiction Break are currently closed. They will reopen in 2018.

Guidelines for Submission

How to submit your work: We receive all submissions via our electronic submissions form. This form requires the author’s name; a brief (two to four sentence) bio; the word count of the story; and the story itself, included in .doc or .docx format. We also strongly encourage you to provide links to any online presence you would like readers to see (blog address, Facebook page, Twitter handle, Instagram handle). These links will be included in your bio if your story is accepted for publication.

Simultaneous submissions: We want to give your work the greatest opportunity for publication, and so we accept simultaneous submissions. If your story is accepted for publication elsewhere, please let us know.

Frequency of submissions: Please submit only one story at a time. After you receive a response on your submission, you are more than welcome to submit another piece to us.

Story guidelines: All submissions must be fiction and no more than 2,500 words. Longer stories will not be considered. Though we consider stories of any genre, we do not accept erotica or hate.

Social media: If your story is accepted, we will publish it alongside a short bio and the links you included in your submission. We also expect you to share your story across your own platform.

Ready to Submit Your Story?

At Short Fiction Break, we are innovative and passionate about connecting stories with readers and helping writers grow in their craft. We are different from the average literary magazine, and we work hard to offer more than simply sharing words on a screen.

In order to continue to provide you with quality training and investment and to support our team of dedicated, hardworking editors, we charge a submission fee of $20. Whether your piece is accepted for publication or not, we are confident that the personal investment and expert feedback you will receive through our submissions process and in Becoming Writer will be more than worth this nominal fee.

We are honored that you are submitting your story to Short Fiction Break, and we cannot wait to read it.

If you have any questions about submitting to Short Fiction Break, please contact us.

Submissions to Short Fiction Break are currently closed. They will reopen in 2018.